• A new book by a Charles Sturt University academic provides detailed guidance to help leaders and managers ensure organisations remain innovative, competitive and sustainable
• The book introduces fundamental concepts of change management enabling professionals to conceptualise, plan, set up, carry out and evaluate change
• Change is a natural and constantly occurring part of any life and organisation and should be managed, not neglected

A new book by a Charles Sturt University information studies academic aims to help leaders and managers ensure their organisations are competitive, sustainable and innovative in the future.

Lecturer in Information Studies Dr Zhixian (George) Yi (pictured top left) in the Charles Sturt School of Information and Communication Studies has recently published Change Management in Information Organizations (Elsevier, September 2024), a new guide for managers and staff in a range of information storage and processing roles and organisations.

Dr Yi said organisations are facing numerous challenges and new trends in change management due to the background of the acceleration of change caused by the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with the rapidly evolving information and communication technologies including artificial intelligence (AI) tools and constant changes in the environment, society and politics.

“As organisations re-examine practices, services and resources, and innovate for competitive advantage, my book Change Management in Information Organizations offers theoretical and evidence-based material, including empirical research and insights from academic library directors,” Dr Yi said.

“It introduces fundamental concepts of change management that are of practical help for rapidly adapting to and managing changing circumstances, thus enabling professionals to conceptualise, plan, set up, carry out and evaluate change.”

Dr Yi said that to manage change successfully in an organisation, it is very important for leaders, managers, supervisors and employees to have a good understanding of fundamental concepts of change management, and the driving forces and factors that result in change.

This includes the need for change, the types of change, the relationship between culture and change, change management life cycle and a leader’s roles in leading and managing change.

“To manage an organisation’s change in a successful way, change leaders and managers should follow the change management life cycle, including four phases: conceptualisation, planning, implementation and evaluation in given situations,” Dr Yi said.

“It is important for change leaders and managers to communicate change with people in a successful way in order to ensure that each phase of the change management life cycle is successfully completed.”

Dr Yi advocates that for an organisation to remain innovative, competitive and sustainable, and to lead and manage change successfully, leaders should spend time and effort on the roles in leading and managing change.

“It is necessary that leaders have important skills, such as innovation, creativity, communication, flexibility, relationship building and trustworthiness,” he said.

“Leaders need to be able to manage changes at both individual and organisational levels, have good qualities such as the provision of vision and innovation, honesty, trustworthiness, fairness, equity, integrity and leading by example and good attributes such as self-confidence, empathy and emotional intelligence.”

“Evolving information and communication technologies, resistance to change and sustaining the change, are the key challenges.”

Change Management in Information Organizations (September 2024) can be purchased online from Elsevier. It enables information professionals, academic librarians, archivists, museum specialists, library managers and administrators, university administrators, and those studying courses such as the Charles Sturt Bachelor of Information Studies to successfully negotiate the new realities.

Dr Yi is also an editorial board member of The Journal of Academic Librarianship, a top-ranking international journal published by Elsevier, a world-leading publication.